Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/944

Rh DACTYLI. DABAR, the son of Massugrada, of the femily of Masinissa, but whose father was the son of a concubine, was an intimate friend of Bocchus, the king of Mauretania, by whom he was sent to Sulla to negotiate the peace which ended in the surrender of Jugurtha. Dabar was afterwards present at the interview between Bocchus and Sulla. (Sail. Jug. 108, 109.) DA'CT YLI (AoKTuXot), the Dactyls of mount Ida in Phrygia, fabulous beings to whom the dis- covery of iron and the art of working it by means of fire was ascribed. Their name Dactyls, that is. Fingers, is accounted for in various ways; by their number being five or ten, or by the fact of their serving Rhea just as the fingers serve the hand, or by the story of their having lived at the foot (Iv hoKTvKois) of mount Ida. (Pollux, ii. 4 ; Strab. X. p. 473 ; Diod. v, 64.) Most of our au- thorities describe Phrygia as the original seat of the Dactyls. (Diod. xvii. 7 ; Schol. ad ApoUon. Rhod. i. 1126 ; Strab. I. c.) There they were con- nected with the worship of Rheiu They are some- times confounded or identified with the Curetes, Corybantes, Cabeiri, and Telchines ; or they are described as the fathers of the Cabeiri and Cory- bantes. (Strab. X. p. 466; Schol. u/l Aral. 33; Serv. ad Viry. Georg. iv. 153.) This confusion with the Cabeiri also accounts for Samothrace being in some accounts described as their residence (Diod. V. 64 ; comp. Amob. adv. Gent. iii. 41) ; and Dio- dorus states, on the authority of Cretan historians, that the Dactyls had been occupied in incantations and other magic pursuits ; that thereby they ex- cited great wonder in Samothrace, and that Or- pheus was their disciple in these things. Their connexion or identification with the Curetes even led to their being regarded as the same as the Roman Penates. (Amob. iii. 40.) According to a tradition in Clemens Alexandrinus {Strom, i. p. 362) the Dactyls did not discover the iron in the Phrygian Ida, but in the island of Cyprus; and others again transfer them to mount Ida in Crete, although the ancient traditions of the latter island scarcely contain any traces of early working in metal there. (Apollon. Rhod. i. 1129; VWn. H. N. vii. 57.) Their number appears to have originally been three : Celmis (the smelter), Damnaraeneus (the hammer), and Acmon (the anvil). (SchoL ad Apollon. I. c). To these others were subsequently added, such as Scythes, the Phrygian, who in- vented the smelting of iron (Clem. Alex. Strom, i. p. 362), Heracles (Strab. I. c), and Delas. (Euseb. Praep. Evaiig. x. p. 475.) ApoUonius Rhodius mentions the hero Titias and Cyllenus as the prin- cipal Dactyls, and a local tradition of Elis men- tioned, besides Heracles, Paconius, Epimedes, Jasius, and Idas or Acesidas as Dactyls; but these seem to have been beings altogether different from the Idaean Dactyls, for to judge from their names, they must have been healing divinities. (Paus. v. 7. § 4, 14. § 5, 8. § 1, vi. 21. § 5 ; Strab. viii. p. 355.) Their number is also stated to have been five, ten (five male and five female ones), fifty-two, or even one hundred. The tradition which assigns to them the Cretan Ida as their habitation, de- scribes them as the earliest inhabitants of Crete, and as having gone thither with Mygdon (or DAEDALUS. Minos) from Phrygia, and as having discovered the iron in mount Berecynthus. (Diod. v. 64 ; Cic. de Nat. Deor. iii. 16.) With regard to the real nature of the Dactyls, they seem to be no more than the mythical representatives of the dis- coverers of iron and of the art of smelting metals with the aid of fire, for the importance of this art is sufRcienth' great for the ancients to ascribe its invention to supernatural beings. The original notion of the Dactyls was afterwards extended, and they are said to have discovered various other things which are useful or pleasing to man ; thus they are reported to have introduced music from Phrygia into Greece, to have invented rhythm, especially the dactylic rhythm. (Plut. de Mas. 5 ; Diomedes, p. 474, ed. Putsch ; Clem. Alex. Strom. i. p. 360.) They were in general looked upon as mysterious sorcerers, and are therefore also de- scribed as the inventors of the Ephesian incantation formulae ; and persons when suddenly frightened used to pronounce the names of the Dactyls as words of magic power. (Plut. de Fac. in Orb. Lun. 30; com^Ttxe ho)Qci^ de Idaeis Dactylis ; Welcker, Die Aeschyl. Trib. p. 168, &c.) [L. S.] DADIS, a writer on agriculture, mentioned by Varro. {It. 7?. i. 1. § 9.) DAE'DALUS (Aa/5aAos). 1. A mythical personage, under whose name the Greek writers personified the earliest development of the arts of sculpture and architecture, especially among the Athenians and Cretans. Though he is represented as living in the early heroic period, the age of Minos and of Theseus, he is not mentioned by Homer, except in one doubt- ful passage. (See below.) The ancient writers generally represent Dae- dalus as an Athenian, of the royal race of the Erechtheidae (Paus. vii. 4. § 5 ; Plut. Tim. .) Others called him a Cretan, on account of the long time he lived in Crete. (Auson. Idyll. 12 ; Eustath. ad Horn. II. xviii. 592 ; Paus. . 53. § 3.) According to Diodorus, who gives the fullest ac- count of him (iv. 76 — 79), he was the son of Metion, the son of Eupalamus, the son of Erecli- theus. (Comp. Plato, Ion. p. 553 ; Paus. vii. 4. $ 5.) Others make him the son of Eupalamus, or of Palamaon. (Paus. ix. 3. $ 2; Hygin. Fab. 39, corrected by 274 ; Suid. s. v. UepSiKos Upov ; Serv. ad Virg. Aen. vi. 14.) His mother is called Alcippe (Apollod. iii. 15. § 9), or Iphinoe, (Pherecyd. ap. ScM. Soph. Oed. Col. 463), or Phrasimede. (Schol. adPlat. Hep. p. 529.) He de- voted himself to sculpture, and made great im- provements in the art. He instructed his sister's son, Calos, Talus, or Perdix, who soon came to surpass him in skill and ingenuity, and Daedalus killed him through envy. [Perdix.] Being condemned to death by the Areiopagus for this murder, he went to Crete, where the fame of his skill obtained for him the friendship of Minos. He made the well-known wooden cow for Pasi- phae ; and when Pasiphae gave birth to the Minotaur, Daedalus constnicted the labyrinth, at Cnossus, in which the monster was kept. (Apollod. /. c. ; Ovid. Met. viii. : the labyrinth is a fiction, based upon the Egyptian labyrinth, from which Diodorus says that that of Daedalus was copied (i. 97) : there is no proof that such a building ever existed in Crete. (Hockh, Creta, i. p. 56.) For his part in this affair, Daedalus was imprisoned by Minos ; but Pasiphae released him, and, as Minos